You know that scene in The Big Short, when after the collapse there's a distinct vibe of "man that was so obvious, how were people so impossibly stupid?"
— Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) May 3, 2024
If you are loaning money to the Federal Government (ie if you own government bonds), the *only* reason you should feel… https://t.co/KgutE7xeIv
Mike Norman Economics
An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
Friday, May 3, 2024
Jared Bernstein, total idiot. You have to see this to believe it.
Monday, April 29, 2024
Trump to set interest rates himself under secret presidential plan
Trump getting ready to go to war with the Democrat Monetarist morons who currently run the Fed... He probably wants rates back at zero like Obama had for 8 years…
This would be a catastrophe if it ever happened.
— QE Infinity (@StealthQE4) April 27, 2024
It’s being reported by the WSJ so it’s legit.
If Trump lowered rates into an inflationary crisis it would create a lot of pain. Especially for the middle class. pic.twitter.com/FTLfEQ1Qmu
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Japan
Shots fired:
Japan has always been a favorite talking point for the #MMT crowd, who claim Japan's huge debt load is totally fine. It isn't. Japan is in a currency crisis because its debt forces the BoJ to keep interest rates pinned. A huge warning sign for debt aficionados in the Euro zone... pic.twitter.com/mnO6RUQgnq
— Robin Brooks (@robin_j_brooks) April 28, 2024
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Accounting 101
So what now we have Art Degree MMT Economics people teaching rudimentary Finance and Accounting Science 101 like this is some big revelation or something? Big deal … 🤔
assets___________BANK________liabilities
— Dirk Ehnts (@DEhnts) April 15, 2024
+ reserves + bank deposits
What happened? 🧐
Thursday, April 11, 2024
JPMorgan says high interest rates are driving inflation higher
But these JPM people are not winning the Art Degree argument though:
JUST IN: 🇺🇸 JPMorgan says high interest rates are driving inflation higher - Bloomberg pic.twitter.com/ui89mAh6RG
— Radar🚨 (@RadarHits) April 10, 2024
This guy is winning the argument:
.@lhsummers, former US Treasury Secretary and Wall Street Week contributor, says he's not surprised inflation rose again in March, but he says an interest rate cut in June by the Federal Reserve would be dangerous https://t.co/VVbO71W83N pic.twitter.com/enjnKsEm5Z
— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) April 10, 2024
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Latest European Union rules provide no serious reform or increased capacity to meet the actual challenges ahead — Bill Mitchell
It’s Wednesday and we have discussion on a few topics today. The first relates to the new agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council that was announced on February 10, 2024, which purports to reform the fiscal rules structure that has crippled the Member States of the EMU since inception. The reality is that the changes are minimal and actually will make matters worse. I keep reading progressives who claim the EU fiscal rules are no longer operative. Well, sorry, they are and the temporary respite during the pandemic is now over and the new agreement makes that very clear. I also express disappointment that high profile progressives continue to misrepresent Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) as they advance their own agenda, which effectively provides support to the sound finance narratives. Then some updated health data which continues to support my perspective on Covid. And then some anti-fascist music. What’s not to like.William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
Latest European Union rules provide no serious reform or increased capacity to meet the actual challenges ahead
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
What is responsible government spending? — Guest post by Scott Baum
Today, I am fully engaged in work commitments and so we have a guest blogger in the guise of Professor Scott Baum from Griffith University, who has been one of my regular research colleagues over a long period of time. He indicated that he would like to contribute occasionally and that provides some diversity of voice although the focus remains on advancing our understanding of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and its applications. Today he is going to talk about what responsible government spending should look like. Anyway, over to Scott …
Death of empires: History tells us what will follow the collapse of US hegemony — Henry Johnston
The turn away from expansion, production and trade toward lending and speculation has precipitated decline for centuries
RT — Question More (Russian state-sponsored media)
Death of empires: History tells us what will follow the collapse of US hegemony
Millions of simulations show that media companies have too much time on their hands — Bill Mitchell
It’s Wednesday and I discuss a number of topics today. First, the ‘million simulations’ that Bloomberg apparently think show that there is an impending US bond market rout. Second, the way in which neoliberal-inspired legislation ensures the private energy providers can gouge prices and make huge profits in the face of a state-owned alternative. Third, my latest podcast with Real Progressives. Fourth, the crocodile tears from the Australian government concerning Gaza when they are effective supplying the means to kill our own citizens and tens of thousands of others. Finally, to calm down after all that some great jazz.…
Bloomberg published a ridiculous article yesterday (April 2) – A Million Simulations, One Verdict for US Economy: Debt Danger Ahead – which I thought might have been a delayed April Fool’s joke.…
William Mitchell — Modern Monetary Theory
Millions of simulations show that media companies have too much time on their hands
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
In Defence Of Discrete Time Models — Brian Romanchuk
Bond Economics
In Defence Of Discrete Time Models
Brian Romanchuk
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Economic Democracy with Pavlina Tcherneva — Scott Ferguson and William Saas interview Pavlina Tcherneva
Money on the Left — MR Online
Economic Democracy with Pavlina Tcherneva
Scott Ferguson and William Saas interview Pavlina Tcherneva
Thursday, March 28, 2024
The SDGs are not achievable—Unless we decolonize the global economic architecture — Fadhel Kaboub
I’m on my way back to Nairobi. I spent the last 3 days in Rome at a UN expert group meeting on SDG2 (Ending Hunger) at the FAO, in preparation for the 2024 High-Level Political Forum that will be help in July 2024. It was a bit ironic that the FAO building where we held the meeting used to be the Italian Ministry of the Colonies under the Mussolini regime, and my main message to the FAO was about decolonizing the global economic architecture is a prerequisite for achieving the SDGs, including SDG2 to end hunger. It is 2024, and the global food system reflects the legacy of colonial and post-colonial hierarchies. This blog is a brief summary of my main message to the FAO.…
The SDGs are not achievable—Unless we decolonize the global economic architecture
Fadhel Kaboub, Associate Professor of economics at Denison University (on leave) and President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. He currently serves as the Under-Secretary-General for Financing for Development at the Organisation of Educational Cooperation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.He also held a number of research affiliations with the Levy Economics Institute, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Economic Research Forum (Cairo), Power Shift Africa (Nairobi), and the Center for Strategic Studies on the Maghreb (Tunis). Fadhel is Tunisian-American MMT economist. Ph.D. in Economics & Social Science Consortium, 2006, University of Missouri - Kansas City. M.A. in Economics, May 2001, University of Missouri - Kansas City. B.S. in Economics, June 1999, with Distinction
Rinse and repeat–Truss chaos–the new benchmark — Bill Mitchell
For years, those who want selective access to government spending benefits (like the military-industrial complex and other parasitic sectors), while claiming the government cannot afford to provide adequate income support to the most disadvantaged citizens have used various ruses to give an air of authority or legitimacy to their claims. So in the UK, the lie in 1976 by the then Labour government that it was going to have to borrow from the IMF to stay solvent has been regularly wheeled out. In Europe, it was the ‘tournant de la rigueur’ (austerity turn) introduced by the French government of François Mitterrand in 1983 that effectively cancelled the commitment to the progressive – Programme commun – that is often cited as a demonstration of the limited capacity of governments to resist the global power of the financial markets. The fact that it was progressive governments that instigated these events made it more emphatic – the Left essentially swallowed the fictions introduced by the Right and the corporate elites that governments were now powerless against the power of the financial markets. The macroeconomic contest was essentially ceded to the conservatives and it has been that way since. There is now a new ruse that the elites are using that the progressives are also spreading – the Liz Truss Ruse. This apparently tells us that governments must appease the financial markets or face currency destruction and rising bond yields. Like its predecessors, there is no validity to the claims. But the Left is so bereft that it cannot see through the smoke and mirrors. And that is why the world is in the parlous state that it is – the contest of ideas is non-existent. It is a case of rinse and repeat – except all is happening is lies and posturing is being recycled....
Rinse and repeat – Truss chaos – the new benchmark
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Mark Blyth: Unionists 'taking my words on independence out of context' — Xander Elliards
The sequel.
The National (Scotland)Mark Blyth: Unionists 'taking my words on independence out of context'
Philip Pilkington turns the page on MMT?
Philip Pilkington turns the page on MMT?
https://twitter.com/philippilk/status/1772538175564447823
The US, like the UK, can’t go broke in their own currency. But if foreign lenders don’t buy into net bond issuance, USD will have to adjust to shrink the trade deficit. This will put upward pressure on inflation and is what the UK faced under Truss. Will Trump get Trussed?… pic.twitter.com/fDuYrC3Gzx
— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) March 26, 2024
Monday, March 25, 2024
Monetary Sovereignty and Mark Blyth’s critique of MMT — Peter May
And there is indeed a ‘current account constraint’ – if you are a small open economy you need things you can sell in order to get the stuff you don’t have.MMT does recognize this constraint by treating it with more nuance.
MMT really applies, as many others suggest, uniquely to the US as it issues the world’s reserve currency.
If you are not the US and your Sovereign Currency is weak, it will drive import inflation so it really means that your currency is not properly sovereign.
- China introduced new guidelines to replace Intel, AMD chips and Microsoft Windows in government computers with domestic alternatives.
- The move is part of China's "xinchuang" strategy to achieve technological independence and reduce reliance on foreign technology.
- Analysts predict faster adoption of domestic server processors compared to PCs due to a less complex software ecosystem.
Sunday, March 24, 2024
Climate Reparations, not "finance" — Fadhel Kaboub
A brief note on the EU, Egypt, Palestine, and Copenhagen
MMT's man on the ground in the Global South.
Global South Perspectives—Reflections & Analysis by Fadhel KaboubClimate Reparations, not "finance"
Saturday, March 23, 2024
Untangling the "socialism" vs. "capitalism" dichotomy — Alex Krainer
Interesting post that deal with some of the same concepts as MMT but is not MMT. It's an interesting take. He has seen both sides, having grown up in a communist country (Yugoslavia). He is former hedge fund manager, commodities trader and author based in Monaco. He now blogs on geoeconomics and geopolitics at TrendCompass on Substack.
Alex Krainer's TrendCompassUntangling the "socialism" vs. "capitalism" dichotomy
Friday, March 22, 2024
Entropy, the Theory of Value and the Future of Humanity — James K. Galbraith
In a keynote address to a conference on “Geopolitical Changes” at Kozminski University, Warsaw, on January 29, 2024, Professor James Galbraith called for economics to break with equilibrium dogma and re-found itself on the life principles that govern physics, biology and every existing mechanical and social system. Noting the distinguished presence of Professors Francis Fukuyama and E.S. Phelps, Galbraith called attention to the spectacular fallacies of “an end to history” and a “natural rate of unemployment,” arguing that these doctrines have helped blind our generation to the damage inflicted by rising resource costs and neoliberal policies of austerity and precarity, with dire consequences for households in wealthy societies, for their reproduction rates, and for the long-term viability of the species.
Transcript.
James K. Galbraith is an MMT-friendly economist.
Post-Neoliberalism—Pathways for Transformative Economics and PoliticsEntropy, the Theory of Value and the Future of Humanity
James K. Galbraith | Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and Professor of Government at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin
Top 25 Heterodox Economics Books — Lars P. Syll
Lars P. Syll’s Blog
Top 25 Heterodox Economics Books
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University
Monday, March 18, 2024
Claims that mainstream economics is changing radically are far-fetched — Bill Mitchell
I have received several E-mails over the last few weeks that suggest that the economics discipline is finally changing course to redress the major flaws in the curricula that is taught around the world and that perhaps Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) can take some credit for some of that. There has been a tendency for some time for those who are attracted to MMT to become somewhat celebratory, even to the point of declaring ‘victory’. This tendency is not limited to the MMT public who comment on social media and the like. My response is that we are probably further away from seeing fundamental change in the economics profession than perhaps where we were some years ago – after the GFC and in the early years of the pandemic (which continues). My answer reflects the incontestable fact that the make up of faculties within our higher education systems has not changed much, if at all, and the dominant publishing and grant awarding bodies still reflect that mainstream dominance. There is still a lot of work to be done and a lot of ‘funerals’ to attend (à la Max Planck)....
Summary: Nothing is going to change while the same clique remains in power and controls the educational and publishing process. Same in politics, although it is much more difficult to control the narrative that serves as an instrument of control than the narrative in terms of which the public understands economics. Heterodox economics has a long way to go in disrupting and eventually replacing this "Econ 101" narrative that firmly rules the collective mindset.
There is much more in this post than the title and lede paragraph would suggest.
Here is an example.
[Angus] Deaton then admits that “I have recently found myself changing my mind, a discomfiting process for someone who has been a practicing economist for more than half a century.”
How so?
Well,
1. He now says that the dominance of the “virtues of free, competitive markets” has meant that mainstream economics has ignored corporate power.
He wrote: “Without an analysis of power, it is hard to understand inequality or much else in modern capitalism.”
That is, without beginning with class conflict, an analyst has zero chance of gaining an understanding of the dynamics of capitalism, where capital seeks to influence outcomes in any way that advances their cause to retain their hegemony.
But if we introduced that into economic analysis there would be no mainstream elements worth retaining.
The dominance unit of analysis in mainstream economics is the individual.
Society is not considered.
Collectives are not considered.
Conflict is played down.
And when power does come up in mainstream economics the focus has been of trade unions as perverting the free workings of the labour contracting process.
Claims that mainstream economics is changing radically are far-fetched
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Friday, March 15, 2024
Will BRICS launch a new world in 2024? — Pepe Escobar
BRICS doubled its membership at the start of 2024, and faces huge tasks ahead: integrating its newest members, developing future admission criteria, deepening the institution's groundings, and most importantly, launching the mechanisms for bypassing the US dollar in international finance.
The financial plans are toward the end of the post. No details yet, but a plan is supposed to be presented at the BRICs meaning in the fall of this year. An alternative BRICs currency is not being planned at this stage when BRICs is just getting off the ground and has yet to be adequately institutionalized yet itself. It still just "a club" at this point. Lots of work to be done, especially with many more countries already lining up for membership.
The CradleJoe Stiglitz really should not talk about modern monetary theory when he so obviously has no clue about what it actually says — Richard Murphy
Joseph Stiglitz makes freshman mistakes about MMT in addressing the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee on the sustainability of the UK’s national debt. Richard Murphy calls him out on it.
Funding the Future (formerly Tax Research UK)
Joe Stiglitz really should not talk about modern monetary theory when he so obviously has no clue about what it actually says
Richard Murphy | Professor of Practice in International Political Economy at City University, London; Director of Tax Research UK; non-executive director of Cambridge Econometrics, and a member of the Progressive Economy Forum
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Keynes was wrong because he failed to consider class conflict — Bill Mitchell
Important for MMT aficionado's.
I was asked during an interview the other day from Paris whether I was a Post Keynesian. I replied not at all and explained that I have never felt that my ideas fit into that category although in a facile sense we are all post keynesian in a temporal sense. Most progressive economists would answer yes if confronted with that question, even most of the economists involved in advancing Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). My point of departure is that while there was a lot of important analytical material in Keynes’ writing that is worth preserving and integrating into, say, MMT, where Keynes went astray was his antipathy to the insights provided by Karl Marx. In particular, I consider that Keynes seriously misunderstood what the dynamics of the class conflict were within a capitalist mode of production. Keynes made major errors in his predictions that one can directly attribute to this blinkered approach to capitalism. I was reminded of this when I read an Op Ed in the Japan Times this week (March 10, 2024) – The economic future of our overworked grandchildren. This blinkered approach, which has fed into the modern Post Keynesian literature – which examines capitalism as if it is an ahistorical, neutral system of production and distribution – is a major reason that I do not associate my work with that school of thought.
Failing to note the economic importance of class and class conflict is a foundational error.
"Class struggle" is foundational for Marx. Keynes knew this, of course. R. H. Tawney's Religion and the Rise of Capitalism was published in 1926. Keynes would have been aware of Weber and Tawney as well as Marx, all of whom viewed economic systems as historically determined socio-economic artifacts rather than natural systems. Keynes acknowledge this in calling economics a "moral science," which was also Adam Smith's view. The big three — Smith, Marx, and Keynes — were on the same page here.
Class is something that Keynes could not have missed being a member of the British upper class in a highly class-ridden society. Not only that the rise of Marxism in Russia and it's challenge to the West by socialists and communists in in the West had a particular salience at the time that Keynes was writing.
Did he miss the importance of class conflict to economics, or was he intentionally countering Marx in the West as the time that socialism was rising as an option to capitalism ("bourgeois liberalism").
In other words, was Keynes at apologist for capitalism that tried to put a better face on a fundamentally flawed socio-economic system by tweaking it.
Where Keynes came down on this is still debated, and there is wide disagreement about what role Keynes played and how he actually viewed it himself.
On the other hand, Keynes also was working in what he terms the "classical" paradigm prevalent at the time, which is now called "neoclassical." As Bill says, Keynes's "blinkered approach ... examines capitalism as if it is an ahistorical, neutral system of production and distribution."
Keynes seems to have had a foot in two boats. Bill claims that this results in major issues.
How does Bill's position affect MMT, as he admits that he difference from some other MMT economists on such issues.
William Mitchell — Modern Monetary TheoryKeynes was wrong because he failed to consider class conflict
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Disclaimer
LOL… Need a similar disclaimer when reporting on the debt doomsday morons who have been continuously wrong for 40 YEARS…
I find it hilarious that Bloomberg feels it necessary to include this disclaimer every time Kolanovic makes a market call. pic.twitter.com/sclIvqZm9V
— wu wei (@wu_wei_invest) March 12, 2024
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
EU: Austerity for the people and Keynesianism for the war — Riccardo Zolea
Monetary Policy Institute
EU: Austerity for the people and Keynesianism for the war
Global South Repositioning — Fadhel Kaboub
Global South Perspectives—Reflections & Analysis by Fadhel Kaboub
Global South Repositioning
Fadhel Kaboub, Associate Professor of economics at Denison University (on leave) and President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity. He currently serves as the Under-Secretary-General for Financing for Development at the Organisation of Educational Cooperation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.He also held a number of research affiliations with the Levy Economics Institute, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Economic Research Forum (Cairo), Power Shift Africa (Nairobi), and the Center for Strategic Studies on the Maghreb (Tunis). Fadhel is Tunisian-American MMT economist. Ph.D. in Economics & Social Science Consortium, 2006, University of Missouri - Kansas City. M.A. in Economics, May 2001, University of Missouri - Kansas City. B.S. in Economics, June 1999, with Distinction
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
How Sustainable is our National Debt? — NeilW
The UK House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee is running an inquiry entitled “How sustainable is our National Debt?”
The GIMMS written evidence to the inquiry has now been published....
Monday, March 11, 2024
The Trouble with Words — Peter Radford
The Radford Free Press
The Trouble with Words
Peter Radford